Starbright
by Lamia of the Dark
Summary: [Drabble Collection] Soulmate AU: Everyone is born with a clear jewel in the middle of their forehead which, upon meeting their soulmate, will turn the color of their soulmate's eyes. Various pairings. Some fluff, some angst. Each chapter is self-contained, unrelated to the others.
1. Like a Diamond (Blake&Adam unrequited)

**DISCLAIMER: RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

 **A/N: I needed something to break me out of my writer's block, and my muse is clamoring for more soulmate AUs, so... yeah.**

~ Starbright ~

Everyone in this world is born with a clear jewel in the center of their forehead - officially known as a _starbright_ , but often colloquially called a 'third eye gem', 'soulmate's eye', 'soulmate jewel', or simply 'jewel'. When soulmates meet, each person's jewel will gain the coloring of their soulmate's eyes.

Blake rubs her fingertip over the smooth, domed surface of her soulmate jewel. She doesn't even know what color his eyes _are_ ; she just wishes that it would have gained _some_ color when she met him. She is so certain that the two of them are meant to be together. Why doesn't the universe agree?

~oOo~


	2. Vairons (Roman&Neo)

~ Starbright ~

For as long as he can remember, his jewel has had a crack down the middle of it. Everyone he meets has a smooth, unbroken jewel. He is still a child when he begins to wonder if this means he himself is broken somehow and will never be able to find his soulmate. Or does it mean that he won't be able to find them because his soulmate is already dead?

It isn't until he meets her and sees her eyes that he realizes. As she throws herself into his arms, he marvels at the fact that the truth of the matter was so simple all along.

~oOo~


	3. Intransigent (Ironwood&Glynda)

~ Starbright ~

They meet in a crowd. His soulmate gem turns green. Hers remains clear.

"I'm sure it's you," he insists.

"I _can't_ be your soulmate," she snaps, pointing to her own unchanged gem. "There are plenty of people with green eyes. Go find the one you actually belong with."

She doesn't consider for a moment that she is wrong, that it could be possible that she _is_ his soulmate while he is not hers.

~oOo~


	4. Sharing (Raven&Tai, Qrow&Tai)

~ Starbright ~

The twins meet the other half of their team on initiation day and they immediately notice when their male teammate's third eye turns red.

Both siblings immediately turn to face each other, checking to see whose jewel changed color.

"It's you-"

"He's your-"

They both start to speak at the same time, but stop when they realize what the other is saying.

"Can one person _have_ two soulmates?"

He's never heard of anything like this happening before. Being twins doesn't mean they share the same _soul_ , does it?

"We shared a womb; we can share a soulmate," his sister replies, seemingly unconcerned.

As his twin casually introduces herself to their soulmate, Qrow turns to the fourth member of their team and says, "Hey, that's nice-looking weapon you got there."

"Thanks!"

"Please kill me with it."

~oOo~


	5. Periwinkle (Pyrrha&Weiss)

~ Starbright ~

On her second day at Beacon, Pyrrha's soulmate gem turns blue - a light, icy color which is _not_ the particular shade of blue she wishes it would have been.

Predictably, the Schnee Dust Company heiress is overjoyed to have _The_ Pyrrha Nikos™ as her soulmate. And in her excitement, she brags to anyone who will listen about how strong and amazing her soulmate is. Too embarrassed and socially awkward to do anything else, in response Pyrrha attempts to shift the attention from herself by extolling Weiss's accomplishments instead.

This was not what Pyrrha was hoping for when she decided to leave home and finish her huntress training in a different kingdom. At least they aren't on the same team...

~oOo~


	6. Baby Sloths (Ren&Nora)

~ Starbright ~

He sees the girl's soulmate jewel turn pink, and that's what finally gives him the courage to step forward.

"Leave her alone."

Even though he is shaking as he says it, the other children scatter at the very notion that someone intends to stand up to them.

He reaches out a hand to help her up. She stares at his forehead for a long moment before taking it, breaking into a grin as she realizes.

As he tugs her in the direction of the bakery, she looks back over her shoulder regretfully at the moldy bread.

"Leave it," he says. "We'll get something fresh..."

~oOo~

 **A/N:** Annnnnd you all know what happened after that, but I wanted this to be fluff, damn it.


	7. The Real Girl (Penny&Ruby)

~ Starbright ~

"You're putting that on her forehead?"

"If she doesn't have something resembling one, people will know she's not human just by looking. We have to put something there."

"But she's a battle robot. What if it gets broken during a fight? What then?"

"It's made out of pure diamond. If someone is able to break it, our little robot friend here won't 'live' through that attack anyway."

* * *

"Penny, where have you been? What were you doing?"

"Sir, look..."

"What?"

"Her gem. It's... silver."

"But how?"

"She must have... met... her soulmate...?"

"That shouldn't be possible. She doesn't even have a-"

"Obviously she has a soul; how else would she be able to generate an aura?"

~oOo~


	8. This Complicates Things (Glynda&Ruby)

**A/N: This seems like a good time to mention that none of the drabbles in this collection are related to each other, and I will be re-using characters in different pairing combinations until I either exhaust all possible pairings which I'm willing to write, or my inspiration for other things I've been working on comes back.**

~ Starbright ~

"That was amazing! You're so awesome! Wow, a real huntress!"

Glynda isn't paying attention to what the girl with the scythe is saying because her attention is focused on the child's soulmate gem, which has turned from clear to green. And her first panicked thought is that the girl's soulmate is the criminal they just fought.

 _That's horrible; how could whatever force assigns soulmates allow this to happen?_

While Glynda might not have been paying attention to what the girl was saying, she _does_ notice when the excited babble suddenly stops.

Silver eyes narrow as the girl focuses on one certain detail, and in the next instant she disappears in a flurry of red rose petals. Glynda isn't quite prepared for the impact and stumbles a half-step backward as thin arms lock around her waist.

"Yay, we're soulmates!"

Glynda sighs. She's fairly certain that she knows who this kid's family must be, and she isn't looking forward to their reactions when they find out who her soulmate is.

 _Well, I suppose this is better than what I originally assumed, but this complicates everything even further_...

~oOo~


	9. Worst Nightmare (Cardin&Velvet)

~ Starbright ~

He lets go of her ear and stumbles several steps backward in shock.

 _No, this can't be right! How could my soulmate be a filthy Faunus?_

He has spent enough time staring at himself in mirrors to have memorized the exact shade of his own eyes, and seeing it appear in that... _creature's_ third eye is more than just horrifying to him. He turns and runs out of the cafeteria, all the way back to his dorm.

By the time his teammates think to go check on him, he is lying in a puddle of blood with his weapon beside him, apparently having tried to bash the gem to bits, but only succeeding in concussing himself.

~oOo~


	10. Disparity (Team JNPR)

**A/N: I wanted to play more with the idea of "someone can be your soulmate while you aren't theirs", and this happened.**

~ Starbright ~

Ren's third eye has been Nora-green since the day they met when they were kids, but hers remains mysteriously - _frustratingly_ \- clear, after all this time. Anytime he voices his concern over this disparity, Nora calmly brushes it off as "Maybe mine's broken."

On their second day at Beacon, they meet a clumsy blond boy named Jaune whose jewel turns pink.

"Oh, hey, so I guess that means _my_ soulmate is someone else after all," Nora comments.

"And she's right here," Ren adds, placing his hands on Nora's shoulders and gently turning her to face the red-headed girl whose eyes match the new color of her soulmate jewel.

"Hello," Pyrrha says with an awkward smile and an even more awkward wave.

Noticing that Pyrrha's third eye is the same dark blue as Jaune's eyes, Nora says, "I guess this is fate's way of telling us that we all belong together."

~oOo~


	11. Line in the Sand (Qrow&Summer)

**A/N: Guest reviewer, you should log into your account before commenting if you have a question you want me to answer. If you don't want me to know who you are, you can send an anon ask to my tumblr (my url is definitelynotsnakepeople). Yes, each chapter is unconnected to the rest.**

 **Also if anyone wants to see what happened to Cardin in more detail, check out my oneshot "Fixing Fate's Mistake".**

~ Starbright ~

Qrow has barely had a chance to sit down before a small red blur pounces on him, shrieking, "Uncle Qrow!"

"Hey, shrimp," he says, reaching out to ruffle his niece's hair.

"I'm not a shrimp," Ruby says, with a pout. "I'm five."

"Yeah, but your age doesn't mean you're not short... shorty."

"You're mean!"

Despite this proclamation, the child doesn't remain upset for very long and climbs into her uncle's lap a few moments later. As always, she seems fascinated by the jewel on his forehead, which is the same silver as her eyes - the same as mother's eyes.

"Hey, Uncle Qrow... how come you're not my dad if you and my mom were soulmates?"

Ah... that question. He's always known it would come someday, although he wasn't expecting it so soon.

"Because things didn't happen that way."

"But you were soulmates!"

"That doesn't always mean that people end up together."

"But-"

"HEY, GUESS WHAT? I brought cookies. Let's go eat them."

"Cookies?!"

 _Good thing five-year-olds are easy to distract_ , he thinks to himself. _But I'm sure I won't get out of this conversation again so easily later... like, when she's a teenager_...

~oOo~


	12. And Furious Anger (Ozpin&Qrow)

~ Starbright ~

"Why are you _here_?" Ozpin demands. His voice is not quite raised enough to qualify as shouting, but the barely-restrained anger in his tone is evident to everyone else in the room.

The sight of Qrow's third eye shining a warm golden brown - the color of Oz's own eyes - does nothing to quell the Beacon headmaster's rage.

That sentiment is obviously mutual, as Qrow's temper explodes and he goes off on a rant.

Communication, trust... shouldn't there be more between the two of them? More than all the secrets and responsibilities that they share, the fact that they are soulmates should bond them more closely than this, shouldn't it?

 _Or_ , he wonders, _is 'soulmate' simply a title that means nothing if you do not allow it to?_

~oOo~

 **A/N:** Rather than a first meeting, I decided to go with a pairing who would have known each other for many years by the point that the canon scene this drabble is based on occurs.


	13. Stars Align (Raven&Glynda)

~ Starbright ~

Team STRQ had been missing their fourth member since early morning, and they couldn't reach her by calling her scroll. They had already tried that after their first class this morning, only to find she'd forgotten it in their dorm room.

"I'm starting to get really worried," Summer says, as the three of them sit down at their usual table in the cafeteria for lunch.

"Yeah, me too," Taiyang agrees.

"Look, I know my sister, and I'm sure she's fine," Qrow says. Privately, he thinks she might have been feeling a bit homesick, or just tired of dealing with people, and needed some 'bird time'.

"Maybe we should look for-"

Summer is interrupted by the dramatic arrival of exactly the person she was talking about searching for.

"What's up, losers?" Raven calls out as she approaches their table.

The rest of Team STRQ stare at the unfamiliar blonde girl that she is dragging along with her.

"This nerd is my soulmate," Raven says, wrapping her arm more firmly around the other girl - who looks as though she would like nothing better than to escape.

A quick glance at their foreheads tells the rest of the team that, yes, these two are definitely soulmates.

"Nice to meet you, uh..." Tai is the first to break the silence, but trails off when he realizes that Raven didn't actually tell them her soulmate's name.

"Glynda Goodwitch," the aforementioned soulmate fills in curtly.

"Taiyang, Summer, and my brother," Raven says, gesturing vaguely to each member of her team with her free hand.

"I'm Qrow, by the way," Qrow adds, when it seems his sister isn't going to bother introducing him by name.

"Charmed," Glynda says, still sounding entirely annoyed.

"Raven, where have you been all day, anyway?" Summer asks.

"Around," Raven replies.

Seconds drag by in tense silence, and once it becomes obvious that Raven isn't planning to elaborate, Glynda answers for her: "She walked into the wrong history lecture this morning, and apparently didn't notice. Not that it makes any difference to her, since she slept through the entire thing. And then she had no clue what class she was supposed to be going to because apparently she doesn't keep track of that herself, and followed me to combat class."

"Her semblance is _amazing_ ," Raven pipes up.

Glynda's heavy sigh clearly conveys her irritation that this is what - out of the whole tale - her soulmate sees fit to actually comment on.

"The professor told me off for dragging my soulmate to class with me, and neither of us had even realized that our jewels had changed color until she pointed it out. Raven has been... _attached_ to me ever since. As you can see."

After a few more long, uncomfortable moments of staring, Qrow put forth a suggestion.

"Hey, sis... maybe let her go? Sit down? Eat?"

Raven looks back and forth between the table and her soulmate thoughtfully.

"Good idea," Glynda says, hoping to spur her soulmate into making a decision. "I'm hungry." As Raven's expression changes, she adds, "I'm not going to run away!"

Raven finally nods and releases her, and the two of them join the rest of Team STRQ at the table - before realizing that they don't have their food yet, and sending Qrow to fetch some for them.

~oOo~

 **A/N:** Don't expect other chapters to be this long. They probably won't.


	14. Jagged Edge (Salem, Mercury, no pairing)

~ Starbright ~

Salem doesn't have a jewel on her forehead, just a small black scar where her starbright should be located. Her minions notice, but they fear to ask.

She can see the questions in their eyes, whenever a new one meets her face-to-face for the first time. _Did it get broken, or had it been removed somehow? Did she never have one? Is she even human?_

Then comes the day that Cinder brings a silver-haired boy home. His gaze flicks over her face but doesn't linger on that small black line. He is not the first of her followers to come to her broken, but he is the first to arrive knowing this particular wound.

Without thinking, she reaches a hand out toward him, sure that under the shaggy bangs she will find a similar scar. He ducks away from the touch, backing up several quick steps with his hands raised in front of him in the 'surrender' position.

"Sorry," he says, not sounding apologetic in the least, "but I don't like being touched."

She lets her hand drop to her side.

He tilts his head - not dramatically, but enough to shift his hair away from the center of his forehead, revealing his own scar.

"I won't ask you to explain," she says.

To which he replies, "I wouldn't anyway, even if you did."

At some point during his torment, he had lost all hope of anyone ever being able to love him. The next time he'd looked at himself in a mirror, his starbright had already shriveled up and disappeared, leaving only a small black scar behind. What event led up to that... she doesn't want to know. She already has to live with her own memories.

~oOo~


	15. Extra Pale (Weiss&Ruby)

~ Starbright ~

"Do you KNOW who I am?" the girl in white asks angrily, as the smoke from the explosion clears away.

"Uh..." Ruby replies, as eloquent as ever. She blinks a few times, staring at the girl's forehead as she tries to figure out if it's just a trick of the light or residual ash from the explosion that she's seeing. "... my soulmate, apparently?"

The heiress was about to introduce herself during the awkward pause, but her interlocutor's proclamation brings her up short.

Rather than bothering to help Ruby to her feet, Weiss leans down to peer at the other girl's starbright. Yes, that is definitely her eye color.

"Argh!" she growls as she straightens up. "Why does my soulmate have to be some childish... fool... _child_?!"

"I'm not a child," Ruby protests quietly. She still makes no move to get up off the ground until another girl comes over and reaches out to help her up.

"Well, at least she's not a Faunus," Weiss concedes, seeming content to have found one tolerable aspect of her soulmate.

"Ouch," Ruby groans as the girl who was helping her up drops her back to the ground again.

~oOo~


	16. Silver Eyes (Oz&Ruby, Oscar&Ruby)

~ Starbright ~

"You have... silver eyes."

The words were hardly out of Ozpin's mouth before the girl zipped out from behind the table. The next thing he knew, she was clinging to his waist.

He wasn't sure how to react to the teenager hugging him like this, especially with the way she was nuzzling her face against his ribs, squealing excitedly about being-

 _Oh. Ohhh_.

He laid a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her away a little bit. Ruby looked up at him. Her starbright was obscured by her thick bangs. He lifted his hand from her shoulder to brush her hair away from her forehead. The jewel was indeed a warm golden brown, the color of his own eyes.

She was his soulmate.

He was not going to have a fun time speaking to her overprotective father and uncle about this turn of events.

* * *

"You have silver eyes."

His are hazel. Similar to her previous soulmate's, but not quite the same color. Wide, guileless eyes. So different from Ozpin's sharp stare.

After the battle of Beacon, the first time she'd looked in a mirror and noticed that her starbright had lost its color, she never expected to find a _second_ soulmate. You were only supposed to have one. One in the whole world.

As she stared, confusion and some level of disappointment clear in her expression, the voice in his head piped up: _Oscar, tell her it's me. Tell her you're me. That I'm here_.

He'd never heard the voice this flustered before - confused, inarticulate, _desperate_. The boy did as the voice bade him, and Qrow semi-coherently confirmed the assertion before drunkenly sliding off the couch onto the floor.

"Is it... _really_ you?" Ruby asked slowly, obviously still suspicious.

 _So cautious this time_ , Ozpin lamented.

 _She was your soulmate before...?_ Oscar wondered in surprise.

 _When I was alive, yes_.

 _So, you expected this to happen?_

 _No... I hadn't realized that your soulmate would be the same as mine. In all the lives I've lived, I'd never actually found my soulmate before I met Miss Rose_.

~oOo~


	17. Elementary (Watts&Lionheart)

~ Starbright ~

Watts was calm when he went into his meeting with Lionheart. He wasn't expecting this particular mission to be difficult. Securing the Haven headmaster's loyalty - or at least _compliance_ \- would hardly be a challenge. The man was rumored to be something of a coward, after all.

After exchanging polite greetings with his quarry, the doctor noticed that the other man's third eye gem had turned green sometime between when he'd walked into Lionheart's office and now.

Watts grinned. Well, well. What a turn of events. This was going to be easier than he'd thought.

~oOo~

 **A/N:** **I'm not accepting pairing requests. I'm also not accepting _anti_ -pairing requests. **

**I'm sick of this fandom's negativity and I won't hesitate to block people who only review to complain.**


	18. Arrow (Winter, no pairing)

~ Starbright ~

"Don't stare," Weiss hissed.

"But-"

Ruby's protest was cut off by a swift elbow to the ribs from her partner.

"Ow," Ruby whined.

But even the pain didn't stop her from staring at Weiss's sister. Rather than a smooth round surface, Winter's starbright stuck out from her forehead in jagged spikes.

"It's alright, Weiss," Winter said. "Although it's somewhat common in Atlas, she probably hasn't seen a soul gem like this before." And those words were all it took to banish the baleful glare Weiss had been leveling her team leader with.

"Yeah, it's weird and-"

Weiss clapped a hand over her partner's mouth to prevent Ruby from finishing that most-likely insulting sentence. Ruby licked Weiss's palm, which had the desired effect of making Weiss move her hand and the undesired effect of bringing the heiress's former glare back full-force as Weiss took out a monogrammed handkerchief to wipe the spit off her hand.

Winter smiled indulgently at Ruby as she explained, "The reason my starbright looks like this is because I'm aromantic."

"Doesn't that mean you smell really good...?" Ruby asked slowly, nonplussed.

"Not _aromatic_ , you dunce!" Weiss snapped. " _Aromantic_. It means she doesn't feel romantic attraction."

"Oh... so... Winter doesn't have a soulmate?"

"No."

~oOo~


	19. Snuggly Cuddly (Ruby&Velvet, Yang&Sun)

~ Starbright ~

Taiyang hadn't been planning on going to Vale during the Vytal festival, but since both of his daughters had met their soulmates and were eager to introduce them to him, going to Vale during the Vytal festival was exactly what he ended up doing.

When he met them, Ruby was - predictably - practically glued to her soulmate's side.

"Dad, this is Velvet! She's my snuggle bunny~"

"I can see that," Tai replied, grinning.

"It's nice to meet you, sir," Velvet said. She stepped forward to shake Tai's hand, already entirely used to moving around with Ruby permanently attached to her.

Not to be outdone by her little sister, Yang threw her arm around her own soulmate's shoulders, dragging the boy close to her as she introduced him to her father.

"Dad, this is Sun. He's my cuddle monkey!"

When her soulmate responded only by squirming and looking uncomfortable, Yang's eyes flashed red and she held him against her side more forcefully.

"Um... yep, that's definitely what I am..." Sun said with a nervous laugh.

Yang gave a sunny smile and her eyes faded back to their normal color.

Her father couldn't help noticing that when Yang's eyes changed color, her soulmate's starbright had temporarily turned red as well.

~oOo~


	20. Inconvenient Time For It (Weiss&Yang)

**A/N: I forget when Yang and Weiss canonically first saw each other, so for this fic I'm saying it was in the forest when they were about to fight the two giant Grimms, whether that happens to be accurate or not.**

~ Starbright ~

"Well, this is awkward," Yang said, seemingly out of nowhere.

Weiss, who did not appreciate the non-sequitur, snapped, "What? Trying to fight two giant Creatures of Grimm with seven other people, less than half of whom seem to have adequate proficiency in battle to accomplish the feat?"

Being no stranger to sarcasm herself, Yang replied slowly,"Nooooo... I _meant_ realizing that my little sister's partner is my soulmate while 'trying to fight two giant Creatures of Grimm with seven other people, less than half of whom seem to have adequate proficiency in battle to accomplish the feat.'"

"How dare you mock me!" Although the Schnee heiress was somewhat impressed that the airhead-apparent had quoted her entire sentence back to her verbatim, especially since she didn't think some of those words were normally in her barbaric companion's vocabulary. It wasn't until after the Deathstalker was defeated and they were in the middle of killing the giant Nevermore that Weiss's mind caught up to the other part of what Yang had said.

 _Soulmate. That... that **Amazon** is my SOULMATE?!_

~oOo~


	21. Indicator Signal (Tyrian&Watts)

~ Starbright ~

Tyrian was not expecting to be confronted by an angry soulmate when he snuck back into the evil fortress after his unsanctioned little adventure. (He couldn't help it! It got boring being cooped up in the fortress when there were no missions!)

But there was Watts, waiting for him with an irritated scowl partially obscured by his mustache.

"Oh, _hey,_ Arthur... old buddy, old pal, soulmate of mine," Tyrian rambled nervously.

Without preamble, Watts asked, "Who were you poisoning?"

"Me?" Tyrian gasped and put a hand over his heart, glancing around the room theatrically, as if he expected there to be someone else that his interlocutor could possibly be addressing. "Why, I would _never_ -"

"Yes, you would," Watts cut off his partner's performance curtly. "I was in the middle of my mustache maintenance routine when I looked in the mirror and saw my starbright changed colors. Do you know what color it turned?"

"Hmm," Tyrian replied mock-thoughtfully. "...purple?"

"Purple," Watts confirmed. "And you know what that means. So allow me to ask you once more: Who. Were. You. _Poisoning?_ "

Tyrian shrugged. "No one important. Just random humans. I was bored."

Watts only sighed in response.

"Are you... are you going to tell our goddess about what I was doing?"

Watts sighed again. He could feel a headache coming on. "I suppose not... _this_ time."

"Oh, thank you! You're the best soulmate ever!"

A third sigh escaped the doctor as Tyrian swept him up into a hug.

"You're welcome... put me down..."

~oOo~


	22. Tertiary Tangle (Adam&Winter&Fennec)

~ Starbright ~

Adam's mask concealed the gem on his forehead, which was entirely by design. The Belladonna girl's adorable little crush on him wouldn't be nearly as effective as a tool for manipulation if she knew that he'd already found out who his soulmate was.

Of course, knowing your soulmate's identity didn't always mean that you would end up romantically involved with that person. Although "the soulmate bond" tended to be romanticized by Faunus and humans alike, there was nothing about it that forced soulmates to form relationships with one another. It was mostly societal pressure and a lack of other viable choices which were responsible for that.

* * *

Winter glared at her reflection. She wasn't sure when her jewel had changed. She had no idea who her soulmate could possibly be.

Who in the world even _had_ eyes that were such a ridiculous color?

* * *

The hood of Fennec's robe covered his starbright, but he took additional precautions to make sure it was covered at all times. He lived in fear of someone seeing it - of _Adam_ seeing it - and recognizing the distinctive ice-blue hue as belonging to a member of the Schnee family. How cruel Fate was, to mark him as the soulmate of his entire species' worst enemy...

~oOo~

 **A/N:** I decided to try something new. I put up a poll with a list of characters. The top votes were a 3-way tie between Adam/Winter/Fennec so that was this chapter's pairing. If you want to have a say in what the next pairing is, vote in the poll on my profile page!


	23. Night Terrors (Sienna&Glynda)

**A/N** : Well, it's been an interesting experiment, but I'm done with the poll thing after this. (This chapter's pairing was also chosen by poll, but after this I'll be back to writing whatever I feel like.) Thanks to those who voted.

~ Starbright ~

 _"How is my pet doing today?"_

 _The human huntress in the cage does not respond as the Faunus high leader smirks down at her from her throne._

 _"How does it feel to be treated like an animal?"_

 _Still the captive remains silent. She knows from experience that to speak is to invite punishment. And here, imprisoned, with her aura bound, she doesn't dare_ -

Glynda's eyes snap open in the dark. Not bothering to put her glasses on, she squints until the red glow of the alarm clock resolves itself into fuzzy yet legible numbers. 3:17am.

Rolling onto her back, she sighs and crosses her arms over her eyes.

"I hate that stupid nightmare," she says out loud. "And I wouldn't react like that in that situation!"

Well, maybe if her mind hadn't _intended_ for it to be a nightmare... but she wasn't going to let her thoughts go down that road. Not when her soulmate was an enemy who would most likely try to kill her if they ever met again in real life.

~oOo~


	24. Awkward (Ruby&Emerald, Raven&Summer)

~ Starbright ~

"Sorry Auntie Raven, but it's a liiiiiittle awkward standing next to you now," Ruby said, as she edged away from her nervously.

"Oh?" Raven said, tilting her head in a birdlike manner as she observed her soulmate's daughter. "Ah, I see. So your soulmate has red eyes. Interesting."

"Her name is Emerald." Ruby blushed a bit and scuffed the toe of her boot against the ground as she continued, "She's from Haven. I haven't seen her Semblance yet, but her weapon's pretty cool."

"What kind of weapon? Have you seen her engage in combat?"

"Dual chain-sickles. I missed her tournament matches so far, but I did see her sparring with her team."

"She any good?"

Ruby nodded.

"Good."

Raven noticed Ruby's frosty little teammate regarding the two of them oddly.

"What?" Raven said to her.

"Nothing!" the girl replied, holding her hands up in the 'surrender' position. "I definitely wasn't thinking how it's weird to judge someone's attractiveness by their Semblance, weapon, and combat skills!"

~oOo~


	25. A Bad Match (Cinder&Glynda)

~ Starbright ~

"Oh, hey... mission failed... but, on the bright side, at least you know who your soulmate is now," Roman said, knowing full well that Cinder was not going to be pleased with the knowledge that her starbright had gained color after their ill-fated battle with the annoying kid and that huntress.

Cinder, who hadn't realized her gem had changed color until Roman told her, now demanded, "Give me your compact."

"Now, _why_ would you think I carry one of those around?" Roman drawled, clearly intent on prolonging his employer's torment.

"No one walks around with makeup that flawless without a way to touch it up on the go," Cinder snapped. "Hand it over _now_."

With a heavy sigh, Roman fished out a compact mirror from an inner pocket of his coat and handed it to Cinder.

She snatched it out of his hand with a sarcastic and ungrateful-sounding " _Thank_ you." Then she flipped it open and stared at her starbright in the reflection. Green.

Cinder sighed. At least it wasn't the kid, but still... this was going throw a wrench in her plans, especially if her _soulmate_ (she shuddered at just the thought of that word) decided to seek her out after this.

~oOo~


End file.
